


eclipse

by okamiwind



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: M/M, Origin Myths, Reincarnation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-05
Updated: 2020-07-05
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:27:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25094590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/okamiwind/pseuds/okamiwind
Summary: Everything starts with a simple story.
Relationships: Kim Junmyeon | Suho/Oh Sehun
Comments: 24
Kudos: 71





	eclipse

Since the beginning, there was a boy with cool black hair, eyes dark as the night, and a small crescent smile. His name was Sehun.

The boy called Sehun loved to play in the ocean. His family lived by the sea, and he’d only ever known the water. 

Each day, he was meant to go to the well on the hill and fetch clean, fresh water for his family. The water that came from deep within the water was sweet and cool, and it had been his job for as long as he could remember. It was a hard, thankless task, but Sehun did as he was told because that was the way of things. 

One day, as he was pulling the bucket up from the earth, something caught his eye. 

But it was not something, of course—it was someone.

Down at the opposite side of the hill, way down at the bottom, there was another boy. He stood shorter than Sehun, and he was more radiant than Sehun thought anyone had a right to be. His hair was soft brown, and it glinted reddish gold in the light. His eyes were molten and swimming with gold, lovely, enrapturing. 

More than his beauty, he was novel and new. Sehun had never seen a person who wasn’t related to him. He had to know him. He felt he must. 

“Hey down there,” Sehun called, and the boy with the gold eyes looked up. Sehun gave a wave in the other boy's direction. “Hello.” 

The boy took to a run as though he’d gotten caught stealing, and Sehun resisted the urge to chase after him. His mother had told him not to talk to strangers, that was not the way of things. For as long as he could remember, he listened to the rules, listened well to his parents, but for some reason the sight of the stranger made Sehun forget about rules, forget about listening. Forget about the way of things.  
  


⚬ 

Each day, Sehun went back to the well hoping to see the boy again, and each day, he just barely caught a glimpse before the other boy ran off.

Sehun kept track. He saw the boy each day for eighteen days before he finally got the courage to speak to him again. 

“What’s your name?” Sehun called to the golden boy, hidden behind some rock.

He shyly poked his head out. 

“Junmyeon,” he said slowly, and then just like every other day, he ran like Sehun would chase after him.  
  


⚬ 

Sehun saw Junmyeon every day for another twenty days before he learned that Junmyeon lived on the other side of the hill with his family. He never approached, always kept his distance, but something about the hill made Junmyeon’s voice carry. A pretty song.

Sehun liked to make him sing. He asked question after question, never satisfied.

“I don’t remember when we moved here,” Junmyeon squinted, Sehun studying him from afar. “What a silly question to ask.” 

“What’s so silly about it?” 

“You don’t know anything, do you?” Junmyeon teased. “All you think you’re doing is fetching water.” 

Sehun stared down at his well. “W-Well yes, of course. That's what I'm doing.” 

“Silly, silly boy,” Junmyeon teased, and that kind of teasing always made Sehun’s stomach hurt. 

It wasn’t the kind of hurt he hated, though. It was the sort he wanted to keep all for himself.  
  


⚬ 

He held the secret for as long as he could, but he wasn’t very good at that kind of thing.

“There’s a boy on the other side of the hill,” Sehun confessed one night over supper. “I met him sixty-two days ago. We’re friends.” 

His father looked at his mother, and she shook her head. 

“Don’t speak to him,” his father said quietly. “He’s not your friend.” 

“Yes, he is,” Sehun said. “You can’t stop me from having a friend. A-And I do all my work exactly as I’m told, I’m a good boy, I—“

“No more of this foolishness,” his mother said. “No more of this boy.” 

The worst of it wasn’t that Sehun wanted to obey their orders. The worst of it was that he knew he couldn’t.  
  


⚬ 

Junmyeon peeked out from behind the rock the following day, a blinding, radiant smile across his face. Sehun would be able to see it even from a million miles away, he wagered.

“I told my parents about you,” Sehun said. 

Junmyeon frowned, and Sehun mourned the loss of his smile. “Why would you do something silly like that?” 

Sehun shrugged. “I thought maybe if I told them, I could bring you over for supper.” 

Junmyeon laughed sharply, and the whole sky lit up behind him. 

“You’re silly,” Junmyeon said. 

“I’m not.”

“You are.” 

“I’m coming down there,” Sehun said, and he fetched his water, fixing to dump it on Junmyeon. “I’m going to give you a piece of my mind.” 

But just like that, Junmyeon was gone, the sky dead and cold without him. Sehun trudged back home on his own, wondering why his heart felt so broken.  
  


⚬ 

It took Sehun a few more weeks to figure out why his heart clenched in his chest whenever Junmyeon laughed, whenever he smiled, whenever he poked fun at Sehun. He was in love, he realized, and though he was young, he was determined.

He waited each day for Junmyeon to stick his head out from behind the rock, if only just to catch a glimpse of his beauty. He told himself he would not seek him out if he didn’t want to be sought, and so when Junmyeon waved shyly, Sehun took his chance.

“I love you,” Sehun said.

There was so much quiet. It made Sehun nervous. It was the first time he'd ever told anyone he loved them. 

“Do you know what love is?” Junmyeon asked him. 

“I think so,” Sehun confessed. “Do you?” 

Junmyeon bit his lip. “I think.” 

“Then we should... we should meet! Officially,” Sehun said excitedly.

“What if it took a very long time?” Junmyeon asked nervously. “What if you had to wait a very, very long time before we could?” 

“I’ll wait,” Sehun said, and the determination coursed through him. It reminded him of the waving water deep within the earth. “You’ll see.”  
  


⚬ 

Sehun waited. Waited. Waited.

Each day, they spoke, and they fell deeper in love. This was the way of things. 

"You've kept this a secret," Junmyeon said. "Haven't you?" 

"I don't want them to know about you," Sehun said. "They were so cruel when I told them about you."

"That's how it is," Junmyeon said. "The wa—"

"Don't say _the way of things_ ," Sehun frowned, and he flopped his back against the stone wall of the well. "I hate the way of things." 

"If it weren't for the way of things, we might never have met," Junmyeon said. "Do you really hate it?" 

_Well, no_ , Sehun thought, _but only because the way of things happened to make you and I._  
  


⚬ 

Each day passed slower and slower, it seemed. Some days felt like agony. As they grew, though... Junmyeon became less and less shy. Sehun liked that. Sehun liked seeing him laugh. Liked the way they traded stories.

"You're so beautiful," Sehun said, particularly smitten by the way Junmyeon would slap a hand across his face whenever he smiled too brightly. 

"You just want me to come up there," Junmyeon said.

"Of course," Sehun said. "Have I been hiding my true intentions? I apologize if I've not made it plain enough. I love you. I want to spend the rest of my days in your arms." 

A pretty flush wrapped around the back of Junmyeon's neck, and Sehun only saw because Junmyeon looked off to the side, too shy to look into Sehun's eyes. It only made him love Junmyeon more. And that's what made him so sure that it _was_ love. Ever since they'd known each other, the years passing, the seasons turning... each new part of Junmyeon, he came to cherish. 

The deeper the water ran, the clearer. The sweeter.  
  


⚬ 

They were men by the time the day came, and Sehun wanted so badly that it made his teeth ache. He longed to touch him, hold him in his arms.

See him, be so close to him that his eyelashes could brush against his cheek. _Rapture. The arcane, inexplicable magic of love._

“Tonight,” Junmyeon whispered, but his voice sounded as clear and sure as always. “Meet me tonight.”

“I’m not allowed out past dark,” Sehun said. 

“You are tonight.”

"They always told me something bad would happen," Sehun said. 

"Do you trust me?" Junmyeon asked. 

"Of course." 

"Do you love me?" 

"More than anything." 

"Come with me tonight," Junmyeon said, and his eyes fluttered shut as if he was imagining them together. "Come with me, and I will love you as you deserve."  
  


⚬ 

Sehun left when the house was quiet and still, and he walked to the well under the cover of the black sky.

He saw a figure there as he approached, and his heart leapt in his chest as he went. 

Sehun ran to him, couldn’t contain the energy bursting from inside him, and he gasped as he took Junmyeon in a kiss, in a blazing, red kiss that spoke of love, passion, and history. 

Sehun remembered in that moment, remembered every past meeting, every past life that they had shared. Every kiss, no matter how short, every passing, no matter how fleeting. Small things add up to something big, Sehun knew that well, and this was the biggest thing of all. 

He buried his hands in Junmyeon’s hair as he kissed him, and he never wanted to draw away, never wanted to part though he knew they wouldn’t have very long. 

“Sehun, do you remember now? Do you—“

“I know,” Sehun said softly, and he closed his eyes as he held him. “I remember you.” 

“I’ve missed you,” Junmyeon whispered.

And Sehun clung to him, overcome with emotion.

“I have missed you,” Sehun whispered, and he pressed a kiss to Junmyeon’s cheek, red and warm. “My, how I have missed you, my love.”  
  


⚬ 

And so it was for an eternity.

The sun and the moon could only meet every so often, but not time nor distance nor even the divine could keep them from each other. 

For this was the way of true love: it remained unchanging and unbreakable until the waters of forever ran dry.

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this for my tiana a little while ago, but i just thought it would be a nice time to post it :') i don't know. im clearing out my notes app, and it just felt right. i hope you liked it even though it was short and a little silly. thanks for reading. bye!
> 
> [my twitter](https://twitter.com/okamiwind) | [my curiouscat](https://curiouscat.me/okamiwind)


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